credit demand lowest in 40 years, page-10

There wont be any 'strong growth or confidence' as you put it until either the government intervenes via stimulus or the debt load gets reduced.
Im confident Gillard will pull something out of a hat - she's that kind of pollie (that is, like all of them). Its the market response to any intervention that's going to be the real test. I suspect it will generate a dead-cat-bounce at best. But I thought that in 2008 too & look what happened then...